Because I Said So

BOTTOM LINE: Cute film with a likeable cast but still bogged down by cliches and some all-too-convenient plot points.

THE GOOD: A romantic comedy needs a likeable cast and with Diane Keaton leading the way, you're off to a good start. She turns in a frantic and OCD-style performance as Daphne, the mother of three girls. Two of the girls are doing fine with their relationships but they youngest Milly (played by Mandy Moore) never seems to be able to have any luck to the point where Daphne is very afraid that Milly will become alone like her. Daphne sets a plan in action to go through a dating site to interview prospective boyfriends for Milly. In the process, she encounters a charming young musician named Johnny (Gabriel Macht) who watches her initial interview procedure at a bar he is playing at. Johnny steals one Milly's business cards from Daphne and decides to introduce himself. And so begins a three-way love triangle between Milly, Johnny, and Daphne's first choice Jason. All of this is a fine setup and lends itself to some great character moments and some cute scenes between all those involved. Of course, there's always drama to be had, especially when all parties involved find out what's going on and Milly suddenly realises that she had a good shot with Johnny but wasted it by seeing Jason at the same time. The film plays through some nice character moments between mothers and daughters (Mandy Moore contributes much to the cuteness as the wholesome Milly) and with the fine actors on board provides for some genuine interaction between them.

THE BAD: The place where this film falls down, apart from the cliches, is a couple of way too convenient plot points designed to push the character of Daphne to the place she needs to go to reconcile with Milly as well as herself. Johnny's father, Joe, goes to Milly's house looking for Johnny and inadvertanty bumps in to Daphne. In an hour or two, Joe manages to convert the extremely uptight, never-take-a-risk, never do anything unplanned Daphne in to jumping in to bed with him and throwing her life upside down. This conveniently makes Daphne re-think what she's doing with Milly which leads to not only their reconciliation but Milly's reconciliation with Johnny. You have to let this go to make the whole thing work and it's pretty hard to because you'll be asking yourself, "that's completely out of line with what's been going on for the whole film!". At any rate, with the short running time of 90 minutes perhaps they didn't have the budget to include a few extras scene to fill the gap.

RATING: 6/10

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Warning: This review contains biasness.

This movie received horrendous reviews in general which makes baffled because my sister and I had a good laugh watching it. Then I found the problem: Vast majority of film reviewers are males.  No wonder they hated it but who cares? I’m an ordinary female and I love this movie!

The main relationship in this movie is between Daphne, a single mother who raised three daughters, and Milly, her youngest daughter. Daphne, like most mothers, hopes for the best for her daughter but her naivety towards love triggers her paranoia of Milly ends up being alone like her. In order to prevent that, she decides to interfere by setting Milly up with the perfect man, Jason (Tom Everett Scott), she finds through a personal advertisement. Just as her plan starts to fall into places, Johnny (Gabriel Macht) the free spirited musician appears and steals Milly’s affection. So who will be the last man standing? Is it Johnny or Jason?

I have two sisters and a mother who passes for the eldest sister, maybe that’s why I could relate to this film. I could imagine watching this with my girlfriends and enjoy ourselves. Guys wouldn’t get that. Too Bad.

Girls, please don’t let the guys bother you. Guys don’t really know what’s going on between a mother and daughter so they would think this movie is unrealistic. As you know, most guys do not have the same kind of problems with their fathers. Trust me, apart from the cheesy lines, the story is pretty relevant to some of us girls. Besides, there are two too-good-to-be-true guys in this show who’ll melt your heart and make you wondering who you would choose. Guys hate that, but isn’t that the whole point of watching chick flick?

Do you remember what I said about The Wrestler getting awesome reviews?  If you compare a movie about a semi-retired wrestler to a movie about a relationship between mother and daughter, which one would you pick? Most likely, guys would pick the first and girls the latter. I would say this is much more interesting than The Wrestler but that’s just my opinion.  

Sorry guys. This is one for us girls. Cheers!

Mel says: 7.5/10